Karazhan
The tower of Karazhan is an abandoned ancient fortress in an area now known as Deadwind Pass. Its most famous occupant was the Guardian of Tirisfal, the sorcerer Medivh. After Medivh was defeated by the army of Azeroth during the First War, Karazhan has been abandoned...but who knows what secrets Medivh hid in its depths, and what sort of new dangers are hidden in its echoing halls? thumb|Karazhan- the Tower of Medivhthumb|Inside the Tower = Summary = *'Location:' Deadwind Pass *'# of Players:' 10 *'Level:' 70 *'Final boss:' Prince Malchezaar. * 12 bosses. * Nothing is what it seems, much of the tower twists into Netherspace. * There is a gryphon/wind rider transportation hub at the top of the tower, so you don't have to ascend it every time. * Opera house - pulling back curtains reveals a randomly chosen boss mob. * "Bizarre" library which doesn't obey the laws of physics. * Beneath Karazhan is another tower, a mirror of the one above. * A very big, scripted instance - Tigole: "You could fit 20 Shadowfang [Keeps] inside of Karazhan =P" * Medivh's staff - Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian - can be used to teleport to the front gate of Karazhan. * A non-winged dungeon. = Locations and Bosses = The following are relationships between locations, and the names in parentheses are bosses in that area. * Main Entrance -> The Gatehouse -> Livery Stable (Attumen the Huntsman)/Servant’s Quarters (Random Servant's Quarters Bosses)/The Grand Ballroom ** Livery Stable (Attumen the Huntsman) -> The Scullery/The Guardhouse -> The Banquet Hall (Moroes) ** Servant’s Quarters (Random Servant's Quarters Bosses) -> The Guest Chambers (Maiden of Virtue) ** Servant’s Quarters (Random Servant's Quarters Bosses) -> Master's Terrace (summon Nightbane) ** The Grand Ballroom -> The Banquet Hall (Moroes)/The Guest Chambers (Maiden of Virtue)/The Opera Hall (Random Opera House Bosses) * The Opera Hall (Random Opera House Bosses) -> The Broken Stair -> Menagerie (The Curator)/Side Entrance * Menagerie (The Curator) -> The Repository (Terestian Illhoof) -> Guardian's Library (Shade of Aran) -> The Celestial Watch (Netherspite) -> Gameman's Hall (Chess Encounter) * Gameman's Hall (Chess Encounter) -> Medivh’s Chambers -> Flight Master/The Topmost * The Topmost -> Netherspace (Prince Malchezaar) * Random Servant's Quarters Bosses include: ** Hyakiss the Lurker (spider boss) ** Rokad the Ravager (darkhound boss) ** Shadikith the Glider (bat boss) * Random Opera House Bosses include: ** Wizards of Oz: Dorothee, Tito, Roar, Strawman, Tinhead, & The Crone ** Romeo and Juliet: Romulo & Julianne ** Little Red Riding Hood: The Big Bad Wolf * Kings for each side of the Chess Encounter are King Llane Piece and Warchief Blackhand Piece History Karazhan is located in Deadwind Pass on the sub-continent of Azeroth. Existing long before Medivh inhabited it, it is unknown who originally built Karazhan or who now reside within its walls. During the first war the tower was inhabited by Medivh, his butler Moroes, his cook Cook and his then apprentice Khadgar. Garona also resided here as an emissary in the same time of Khadgar's apprenticeship. Sargeras allowed Medivh to freely explore Karazhan. It is said many strange and disturbing visions lurked within the tower, and Moroes was known for wearing blinders to avoid seeing them. Recently, despite Medivh's absence, a new power seems to have made its home in Karazhan. The Black Riders of Deadwind Pass, though rarely seen, have a connection to Karazhan. However, no one knows who their master is. One recent sighting is cause for concern - the Black Riders seek the Scythe of Elune, a powerful artifact with the ability to summon the vile Worgen into this world. Some have speculated that these Black Riders are in fact the remnants of the original Death Knights created by Gul'dan, and that their master is the ambitious Teron Gorefiend. The fate of these Knights was unknown after the Second War. The Horde Player's Guide refrences this idea, and states that Teron Gorefiend may be in the tower. Though Brann thinks there is likely something more sinister in charge of the tower. It is believed that all ley lines on Azeroth lead to a location under Karazhan. Monsters of Karazhan *Fleshbeast *Worgen In the Opera House, you will meet Barnes the Stage Manager on the stage, addressing his ghostly audience. Barnes will then announce the night's presentation. One of three (currently) boss presentations will appear, each based off of famous stories or tales. "Tonight, things are not what they seem, for tonight, your eyes may not be trusted." * Hood - Starring the hungry Wolf himself. * Oz - Starring Dorathee and her dog Toto, Tinhead, Strawman, the lion Roar, and the evil Crone that tries to stop them on their way home! * Romulo and Julianne - A tale of forbidden love... Development By use of an external map viewer, it is possible to see that although the tower is empty inside, there is a smiley face painted on the ground. First description from the New York Times: :Back in the Karazhan design meeting, artists and developers were debating whether the horse heads' eyes should move to follow players exploring the area when Chris Metzen, Blizzard's vice president for creative development, poked his head in. :For 10 years, Mr. Metzen, 31, has been creating the rich stories and plotlines that have girded Blizzard's success. In his silver-rimmed sunglasses, shorts and boots', he strode to the monitor as the others explained the concept of the horse heads. :"Well, I'm not so sure it makes sense just because it's a carriage house," Mr. Metzen said. "But check it out: in Warcraft 1 it said that Lothar was part of the Brotherhood of the Horse, and I thought that was kind of lame then, but maybe a horse head will work because of that. Yeah, that's hot." :Within a few minutes, Mr. Metzen determined that the history and culture of the tower's long-dead inhabitants decreed that the architectural animal motifs progress from horse heads at the tower's base to eagle heads a bit higher, culminating in lion heads at the grand opera house. :"But don't put these heads all over the place," Mr. Metzen told an artist. "Just sprinkling them in here and there will really sell the history to the players who are paying attention." = Previews = Official Preview From Karazhan on the Official World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade site: WoW Guru * Preview at WoW Guru - not a preview of the tower section, but rather of the expansive crypts underneath. It is unknown whether these will appear in the expansion update - it is possible that they may become part of the instance. The "Upside-Down Sinners" is a particularily intriguing portion of it. Gamespot "You'll also be able to further explore the lore of Warcraft with dungeons like the haunted Karazahn Tower, the original home of the sage Medivh (who predicts the disastrous turn of events in the early part of Blizzard's strategy game Warcraft III). The lower levels of the tower are a stables, where ghostly pages groom skeletal horses, though as your party ascends higher and higher, you'll find crazier and crazier sights, like a dilapidated opera house where an audience of ghostly aristocrats awaits the appearance of a random boss monster based loosely on a character from a famous play beneath a Michelangelo-esque fresco ceiling painting of cherubic orcs in clouds." http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/worldofwarcraftexp1/news.html?sid=6155696&page=2 MMOsite It is said that this instance contains content that your team would have to play chess with boss. (there are 27 spells supporting this http://bc.wowd.org/spells/name Chess&name.html) "That would be a very cool fight without any doubt, just imagine that you and your teammates playing chess with the boss in an instance, the battle is fierce and cruel while the complexion seems quite still. Sword? Spell? Maybe you will need depending on wisdom more than gears this time." http://wow.mmosite.com/content/2006-08-31/20060831232531715.shtml Info from Tigole Additional info posted by Tigole on the official forums: Karazhan is slated to be a max level, 10 person raid instance in the expansion. It's absolutely massive. It's also non-linear although it does become linear at certain points. There are at least a dozen bosses in there so far. Using the raid saving tech, well be able to make a small raid dungeon (only 10 people) where players can save their progress if they cannot do the whole thing in one night. We're trying to implement ways for them to quickly get back to where they were if theyve already made progress in the dungeon. For example, after you kill certain bosses, you can open a door thats a shortcut from the entrance. We're going to try to make that half ways up the tower work. There are some tech issues with it but we'll do our best. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=485094&p=1&tmp=1#post485094 Trivia The Opera House Bosses are themed on various characters from popular fiction: *The Big Bad Wolf is a character taken directly from The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood and other folk tales. *Dorothee, Tito, Roar, Strawman, Tinhead and The Crone are taken from L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, with only minor name changes. *Romulo and Julianne are based on the lead roles of Shakespeare's masterpiece tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. Category:Zone:Deadwind Pass Category:Subzones Category:Instances Category:Instance:Karazhan Category:Raids Category:Burning Crusade Category:Future Zones Category:Coming Soon Category:Ruins Category:Towers